Urban Voices: Accent Studies in the British Isles, edited by Paul Foulkes,
Department of Linguistics, University of Leeds, UK and Gerard Docherty,
Department of Speech, University of Newcastle, UK
August 1999 c.336pp PB 0 340 70608 2 c.\15616.99/$24.95
CASS 0 340 74105 8 c.\15614.99 +VAT CD 0 340 75952 6 c.\15614.99 +VAT
Urban Voices: Accent Studies in the British Isles
Accents and dialects are constantly undergoing small variations over time,
but evidence shows that change may have become increasingly rapid in the
past few decades. Urban Voices presents one of the few recent surveys of
this phonological variation and change in urban accents across Great Britain
and Ireland.
Each of the 14 specially commissioned chapters is divided into two parts.
The first provides a detailed description of accent features within one or
more urban centres, including information on social and stylistic variation
and ongoing change. In the second part a range of current theoretical and
methodological issues are discussed. Some chapters present wholly new data
based on fieldwork carried out specifically for inclusion in Urban Voices,
while others summarise data from well-known research, up-dated and
reanalysed in accordance with new findings.
Containing copious illustrative and pedagogic material, this textbook
presents a clear pathway to state-of-the-art research for students of
sociolinguistics, dialectology, phonetics, and phonology at advanced
undergraduate and graduate level. In addition, the detailed descriptive data
and the accompanying cassette constitute a valuable resource for students
and teachers of English, clinicians and speech therapists, forensic
phoneticians, researchers in speech recognition and speech synthesis, and
actors.
Key Features
Up-to-date survey of British English accents - the only recent
thorough-going overview
State-of-the-art survey of theoretical and methodological issues at the
forefront of sociolinguistics
Contents: The international phonetic alphabet / Patterns of variation and
change in three Newcastle vowels: is this dialect levelling? / Derby and
Newcastle: instrumental phonetic and variationist studies / Sheffield
dialect in the 1990s: revisiting the concept of NORMs / West Wirral: norms,
self-reports and usage / Sandwell, West Midlands: ambiguous perspectives on
gender patterns and model of change / Norwich: endogenous and exogenous
linguistics change / Dialect levelling: change and continuity in Milton
Keynes, Reading and Hull / South East London English: discrete versus
continuous modelling of consonantal reduction / Cardiff: a real-time study
of glottalization / Glasgow: accent and voice quality / Edinburgh:
descriptive material / Standard English in Edinburgh and Glasgow: the
Scottish vowel length rule revealed / (London)Derry: between Ulster and
local speech - class, ethnicity and language change / Dublin English:
current changes and their motivation.
Readership: Undergraduate students of linguistics. Actors and drama students
wishing to learn a particular accent.
Contributors: Deborah Chirrey, Edge Hill University College / Beverley
Collins, Rijks Universiteit Leiden, Netherlands / Gerard J Docherty,
University of Newcastle, UK / Paul Foulkes, University of Leeds, UK / Nigel
Hewlett, Queen Margaret College, UK / Raymond Hickey, University of Essen,
Germany / Paul Kerswill, University of Reading, UK / Anne Grethe Mathisen,
University of Oslo, Norway / Kevin McCafferty, Universitetet i Tromso,
Norway / Inger Mees, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark / Lesley Milroy ,
University of Michigan, USA / Mark Newbrook, Monash University, Australia /
James M Scobbie, Queen Margaret College, UK / Jana Stoddart, Olomouc, Czech
Republic / Jane Stuart-Smith, University of Glasgow, UK / Laura Tollfree,
Monash University, Australia / Peter Trudgill, University of Fribourg,
Switzerland / Alice Turk, University of Edinburgh, UK / Clive Upton,
University of Leeds, UK / Dominic Watt, University of Leeds, UK / J D A
Widdowson, University of Sheffield, UK / Ann Williams, University of
Reading, UK.
Available on inspection for lecturers (quote LLF)
Tel: +44 (0) 171 873 6355
Fax: +44 (0) 171 873 6325
E-mail: milly.neatehodder.co.uk
Visit Arnold on the web: www.arnoldpublishers.com